Tuesday, July 19, 2011

The other day I was helping my four-year old wash her hands. After rinsing I playfully flicked my wet fingers into her face. She flinched, then frowned and scolded me: "Daddy, I don't like when you do that."

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

For work recently, I had to find some replacement parts for a customer's barbecue. After some legwork I was able to find the required part numbers, and I assured our customer we would have them ordered and delivered to her. It wasn't a smooth process but it all worked out... I'll let the email thread below speak for itself:

The best way to order these parts is through us over the phone, simply call in at 1-800-265-2150 and talk to a representative in our office here. I created a file for you with the part numbers you provided, so simply reference your name and the information should come up and the rep you talk to can help you from there. I hope this helps!

Thanks for getting back to me. I tried calling but was stuck on hold longer than I cared to wait, which was what prompted me to send the email. I also foundBroil King on Twitter, and have talked to Rich through that channel. He has taken care of the order, so you can cancel the file you set up for me.

As a customer service rep myself, I must say I’m not impressed with the phone delays Broil King is having, and am even less impressed that it took nine days for anybody to respond to my email. Please let the powers that be know that I’m very impressed with Rich and the service he provided via Twitter though.

I’ve just been in
contact with Emilie who I understand just left you a message asking if you had given your address to either Rich or myself. Emilie is taking
care of sending out your parts but doesn’t have your address to send them to. If
you could either call her back or just shoot me one last email and then we can
take care of everything for you. I apologize for any delay and confusion and
hope to help get this resolved as soon as we can. Thanks for
understanding.

I got Emilie’s message –
yes, I had provided my address to Rich and he was going to send the parts to
me. As I said, Rich has taken care of the order, so you can cancel the file you
set up for me. I don’t want to seem rude, but didn’t you or Emilie communicate
with Rich before replying to & phoning me?

We’re sorry there was
this mixup, because Rich works separately from us in the customer service
department it can get somewhat convoluted exchanging information when customers
contact us through our several different inlets. We’re glad that this was able
to be resolved however and hope these parts work well for you! Thanks, and sorry
once again!

[emphasis added]

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Commentary: I appreciated the apology, but the inference within it is very unfortunate. I refused to wait on hold for 40 minutes to reach an agent, and when I had no response to my email a day later, I decided to use Twitter to try to reach somebody. But how am I to blame for their lack of internal communication? Do I even need to be told that? Businesses really underestimate the power of a simple, "We messed up and we're sorry." Besides, I don't need to hear the root causes of your confusion - that's for your managers to know.

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Update: July 20/11 - I've received the parts I ordered - twice as many as I ordered, actually, but since they sent them no charge I can't complain about that from a financial point of view (although their accountants probably can). The real kicker is that the replacement parts all broke during transport - even the surplus ones. That's right: the parts I ordered to replace broken ones were broken as well. I think there's an issue with quality of the plastic used, but they were also poorly packaged, which is obviously what caused the damage.

Again though, Broil King's Twitter guy, Rich, came to my rescue. I sent him a video showing the damage and he replied that he'd personally package a new set of parts and send them again.

It's not uncommon in the modern world to find products that break easily. And it's not uncommon to find companies too bound up in policies to provide decent customer service. For all the failings I encountered in Broil King's phone & email support team, I was impressed enough with their Twitter guy that I haven't lost confidence in the brand itself. That's a valuable lesson for any company to learn - one person can make a world of difference, plus or minus, for your brand's image. I only hope Broil King is smart enough to recognize the asset they have in Rich and that they compensate him well and start to clone him..

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

My steadfast readers will recall that I've been eating differently, starting back in November 2010.

I've stuck to it and have seen the pounds drop off - 46 lb lost, at my last weigh-in.

In addition to the new eating plan, I've recently added some exercise to my life (yes - every pound I've lost, except for the very last measurement, is due strictly to the change in my diet). Now that summer's finally here I've also decided not to buy bus passes for the next few months, until the weather turns cool. Instead I'll be taking my bicycle to work. Credit goes to our local Bike To Work Day, back on June 24, to get me kick-started in this. So far it's been great - it actually takes me less time than the bus ride takes, and I really enjoy not being bound by schedules, surrounded by smelly people, or stuck in traffic.

I'll also save the $76 monthly bus pass cost (although I do get about $11 of that back at income tax time), over what I expect will be the next three months.

Knowing that I've accomplished so much is a huge boost to my confidence too..

What are the "Transformations" posts all about?

If you missed the original post, the idea behind my Transformations series is that I am committing to writing 100 posts on the topic of a specific thing I've done that day to try to become a better man.

Why "Convert Man"?

A key moment in my life was my decision to become Catholic. People like me are called "converts." Up to that point (1997) I had been a Bible-school educated Free Methodist with a light salting of the charismatic movement. I was, and still am, a born-gain Christian with a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ.

But why on earth would an evangelical Christian ever become Catholic?!? Isn't that going backwards?

This is a decision many of my friends and family could not understand. Ultimately, the reason was one of authority: who has it? As a Protestant, my answer was always "The Bible."

But I never stopped to ask myself if the Bible itself claims that it has final authority in all spiritual and moral matters of any importance.

It does not.

There are countless references in Scripture to there being sources of the Truth other than what is Written. I explained my reasoning (albeit sloppily) based on passages from my old NIV Bible way back in 1998, and later posted it to my blog. For a better explanation, check this out.

I was actually very surprised to discover this truth, and once I did the only logical place to turn was to the only place which claims to retain the oral teachings of the faith of old.

Since I "crossed the Tiber" I've had no regrets, despite the lost friendships and tense moments with my family. It's all worth it. See Matthew 13:44.